Three Ongoing Catastrophes:
Where to Focus
Our heads spin every day that we pay attention to the news as on disaster after another unfolds before us. We in the United States are involved with three ongoing catastrophes, the genocide in Gaza; the assault on immigrants, free speech, and the constitutional system by President Donald Trump; and the threat that the escalation of the war in Ukraine will lead to nuclear war. We ignore any of these crises at our peril; we must do all we can to force the Trump Administration, the U.S. Congress, the courts, our state and local governments to end these catastrophes.
The Genocide in Gaza
Demonstrations against the genocide in Gaza have been taking place around the world. Millions of people are participating. Although the mainstream media in the U.S. give limited coverage to these protests, one can see enormous protests in country after country on social media.
On March 29, 2025, pro-Palestinian protests took place in 80 Spanish cities and more than 50,000 protested in Madrid on May 10, 2025. Eight days later, over 100,000 protested the genocide in The Hague, Netherlands. Protests take place in Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Senegal, Australia, Japan, Bangladesh, and many other countries. In the U.S., pro-Palestinian demonstrations have taken place on numerous campuses and in rural areas, small towns, and large cities. Groups like Jewish Voices for Peace and the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights play a prominent role in the demonstrations.
The U.S. has usually backed Israel because of the influence of the pro-Israel lobby, the profit-making of the military-industrial-intelligence complex, and because the foreign policy elite has seen Israel as a strategic asset against Arab nationalism and adversaries in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Some argue that it is impossible to change U.S. policy toward Israel and Palestine. However, there have been instances in the past when the U.S. has put effective pressure on Israel. The most obvious example is President Dwight Eisenhower forcing Britian, France, and Israel to end their occupation of Egypt in 1956.
There are more recent examples of the U.S. putting pressure on Israel. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush withheld loan guarantees from Israel until he received assurances that U.S. funds would not be used for illegal settlements on Palestinian land. “Bush established consequences for bad behavior, and he got results,” said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute. “It can happen again.”[1]
Prior to entering the White House, Trump, through his emissary, Steve Witkoff, pressured Israel into agreeing to a Gaza ceasefire. When Israel refused to move toward ending the war with Hamas and broke the ceasefire, Trump failed to insist that Israel keep to the agreement.
The genocide in Gaza is not in the interests of the U.S. public. We must increase pressure on the Trump Administration to force it to act to end the genocide.
The Danger of Nuclear War
In 1947, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists highlighted the dangers of nuclear weapons and published what became known as “The Doomsday Clock” to illustrate how close the world was to a nuclear war catastrophe. It set the clock at 7 minutes to midnight. After moving ten minutes further away from midnight in 1991, the Bulletin has perceived ever greater danger in the last few years. It includes the risks from climate change, “emerging and re-emerging diseases,” and disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence. On January 25, 2025, the Doomsday Clock was moved to 89 seconds to midnight, one second closer than the 90 seconds mark reached in 2023. The magazine’s Science and Security Board commented:
“In setting the Clock one second closer to midnight, we send a stark signal: Because the world is already perilously close to the precipice, a move of even a single second should be taken as an indication of extreme danger and an unmistakable warning that every second of delay in reversing course increases the probability of global disaster.”
The Ukrainian attack on planes of the Russian nuclear arsenal was shocking not only because of the serious damage to a major nuclear power’s arsenal, but because of the risks posed by this dangerous escalation. In 2022, UN Secretary General António Guterres worried that “humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.”
The Russian planes were in plain view of satellites and were open for inspections because of requirements of nuclear arms control treaties. Although the U.S. withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 and from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019, two treaties are still in effect. They are the 1963 Partial Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and 2011 New START Treaty.
Imagine, for a moment, what the U.S. might have done if an adversary attacked a part of our nuclear arsenal? In the U.S., only the president can decide to launch nuclear weapons. According to Annie Jacobson’s recent work, Nuclear War: A Scenario, the president would have only six minutes to make a decision.[2]
The Nuclear Arms Race and Nuclear Arms Control Efforts
The nuclear weapons age began on August 6, 1945, with the dropping by the United States of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, visiting vast destruction on the city and its inhabitants. Three days later, the U.S. dropped a second bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki with similar horrible results. The United Nations had been founded just a few months earlier with the hope of avoiding another world war and creating a peaceful world order. Would those hopes or warfare prevail in the post-World War II world?
Discussions took place in the UN and elsewhere about banning the production, distribution, and use of nuclear weapons, but no agreement was reached. Initially, the U.S. had a monopoly and expected that building up a nuclear weapons arsenal would be in its interest. In 1947 the Soviet Union acquired nuclear weapons, and a nuclear arms race ensued. The United Kingdom acquired nuclear weapons in 1952, France in 1960, and China in 1964.
Although the five permanent members of the UN Security Council were the first to acquire nuclear weapons, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel also established nuclear weapons programs. The South African apartheid state dismantled its nuclear weapons before the African National Congress took power in 1994. Three former Soviet republics, including Ukraine, turned their nuclear weapons over to Russia.
Although most of the nuclear states have ratified the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), they have all violated their obligations under the treaty, which include: “Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.”
Dissatisfied with the lack of progress toward nuclear disarmament, most non-nuclear states have ratified The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The UN General Assembly adopted the latter treaty in 2017, and it came into force in 2021. The TPNW puts teeth in the NPT’s general obligation by requiring signatories to conduct an “irreversible elimination” of their nuclear weapons arsenals. A revitalization of the internationalist movement against nuclear weapons can put pressure on the nuclear powers to join the treaty.
Trump’s Assaults on Democracy and the No Kings Protest, June 14, 2025
The Trump Administration’s attacks on the rights of federal employees, immigrants, pro-Palestinian protestors, federal regulatory agencies, universities, unions, Medicaid recipients, and many others are ongoing. The administration also seeks to undermine the power of Congress and the courts, Fundamentally, Trump seeks one-person rule and an end to the constitutional order.
His military parade on June 14 is an attempt to intimidate all opposition. It’s as if he were saying, “you see I have the military in my pocket; oppose me and martial law is next.”
The answer of the resistance is to organize massive protests throughout the country on June 14.
The organizers declare:
“In America, we don’t put up with would-be kings. NO KINGS is a national day of action and mass mobilization in response to increasing authoritarian excesses and corruption from Trump and his allies. We’ve watched as they’ve cracked down on free speech, detained people for their political views, threatened to deport American citizens, and defied the courts. They’ve done this all while continuing to serve and enrich their billionaire allies.
“On Saturday, June 14, we’re taking to the streets nationwide. We’re not gathering to feed his ego. We’re building a movement that leaves him behind.
“The flag doesn’t belong to Donald Trump. It belongs to us. We’re not watching history happen. We’re making it.
“On June 14th, we’re showing up everywhere he isn’t—to say no thrones, no crowns, no kings. Check out nokings.org for more information.”
When you march against Trump’s authoritarianism, demand also an end to the genocide in Gaza, and action to end the danger of nuclear war.
Notes
[1]. Daniel Marans, “George H.W. Bush’s Pressure On Israel Provides Model For Progressives,” Huffington Post, May 25, 2021. < https://www.huffpost.com/entry/george-hw-bush-israel-palestinians-progressives_n_60a6d388e4b0a25683107530> accessed June 5, 2025.
[2]. Jon Letman, “No Time for Nuclear War,” Inkstick, June 5, 2025. < https://inkstickmedia.com/no-time-for-nuclear-war/> accessed June 5, 2025; Annie Jacobson, Nuclear War: A Scenario (New York, Dutton, 2024).